Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch has updated its recommendations for some East Coast fish.
The California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium issues seafood guides for all regions of the country. In them, the aquarium offers “best choices,” “good alternatives” and seafood that buyers should avoid. These guides are periodically updated based on Seafood Watch’s latest “assessments of the abundance of fisheries and other relevant data,” according to an aquarium press release.
Lifted from "avoid" to “good alternatives” are Atlantic haddock and Atlantic pollock caught in U.S. waters, along with summer flounder and Atlantic cod caught in the Gulf of Maine by hook-and-line fisheries. Details may be found at the aquarium’s Web site:http://www.montereybayaquarium.org. The change will be reflected on the Seafood Watch iPhone app later this month.
With these changes, fully 80 percent of the total dollar value of seafood landed in New England consists of species that are “Best Choices” or “Good Alternatives” under Seafood Watch criteria, according to data compiled by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). That amounts to $625.7 million out of $780 million in total seafood landings for 2009 (the most recent year for which NMFS data are available).
Read the complete story from The Chicago Tribune.